theEYE: Grayson Perry

Synopsis

Since winning the Turner Prize in 2003, Grayson Perry has become the nation's favourite transvestite potter. In this film, he speaks engagingly about why he is an artist that uses ceramics and not a potter, and about the defining themes that run through his work. He explains the elaborate, labour intensive process involved in the making of his work and how he typically uses a variety of different techniques. Alongside the edgy undermining of our expectations of what pottery is, beauty and sensual overload are also of great importance to his practice. "Claire," he remarks, informs everything that he does, because she is part of him and "my work is often about part of me. The press use the word 'alter ego' which drives me mad. She's not an alter ego. She's just me in a dress." His 2006 exhibition, The Charms of Lincolnshire, is illustrated in this profile, and he discusses how he created his own works alongside Victorian artefacts from the archives of Lincolnshire museums to create an atmosphere both macabre and exotic. Perry speaks about new work that he has made for his 2007 show in Japan and how he has branched out from just making pots, though they will always remain an essential element of his artistic output.